Notre Dame football: Irish breather, but has concerns

November 01, 2009|By BOB WIENEKE Tribune Staff Writer

SAN ANTONIO - As the Notre Dame players entered their locker room Saturday night following their 40-14 pasting of Washington State at the Alamodome, someone mentioned that the victory was a nice change of pace. It was from the standpoint that the Irish didn't play a close game for the first time in seven games. “I almost didn't know what to do,” ND coach Charlie Weis said, his team now 6-2. “It's been so long since we've had a game where the game was put away.” And it was a change of pace from the standpoint that Weis was able to unload his sideline, substituting liberally over the final half of the fourth quarter. Part of that emptying, however, came because of injuries, particularly at quarterback. Starter Jimmy Clausen, who has battled a turf toe injury for much of the season, left late in the third quarter after he was tripped up. Clausen aggravated the injury and left the game, but he could have returned had the game not been so one-sided. “Coach didn't want to take any chances,” Clausen said. Clausen's injury is one that he'll likely be able to play through the remainder of the season, but it was an injury to backup Dayne Crist that could pose problems from a depth standpoint. Crist, who early in the fourth quarter threw his first career touchdown pass, a 64-yarder to John Goodman, took off running later in the period. As he was being tackled, his right leg buckled. After laying on the field for a couple minutes, he left the field and was quickly helped to the locker room. Crist will have an MRI on the knee Monday. “Dayne was cautiously optimistic,” Weis said. After Crist's injury, Weis turned to third-stringer Evan Sharpley, a fifth-year senior. If Crist's injury is serious, Sharpley becomes the backup to Clausen as the Irish have only three quarterbacks on scholarship this season. Quarterback wasn't the only spot where backups were used, something that hasn't happened a lot this year with a string of six consecutive close games, although Weis didn't sound completely pleased with the way things went. “I think that some of those guys aren't going to be very happy with their evaluations,” Weis said. Still, it was a chance to empty the bench, and names that haven't made big impressions on the stats sheet saw the field for some of their largest chunks of the season. And finally, after playing six games in which the largest margin either way was seven points, the starters were able to watch the finish from the sideline. “It was a relief,” Clausen said. “Close games all the time kind of gets old a little bit.”